Ohio Arts Council Hosts Chilean Arts Administrators
by Jami Goldstein
The Ohio Arts Council will host six Chilean arts administrators the week of July 17-22 as part of a grant from the U.S. Department of State. The two-year, $100,000 grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, titled The Andes Exchange: Animating Democracy through Arts and Culture, is designed to expand and strengthen Ohio’s international exchanges with Chile.
While in Ohio the Chilean visitors will participate in Myers Briggs Type Indicator testing, a two-day marketing and branding session with Neil Mortine and the staff of Fahlgren Mortine, and a full day session on evaluation methods. They will also observe a board meeting of a non-profit organization in transition, the Franklin Park Conservatory, and take a trip to Yellow Springs to visit the Yellow Springs Kids Playhouse and the Shirley/Jones gallery. Yellow Springs community members also are hosting a progressive dinner party for the visitors as a demonstration of the fundraising activity often used by U.S. non-profit organizations.
The grant contains three major project areas but the visit in July will focus on one project area titled the Andes Partnership. This aspect of the program is designed to deepen and sustain the OAC’s work that began with the Andes Foundation in 2003 to strengthen the operating practices of three nationally significant Chilean arts education organizations—Balmaceda 1215, Fundacion Orquestas Juveniles and Amigos del Arte.
The granting program, Arts Exchanges on International Issues, is a more than $1 million initiative of the Department of State to support exchanges and build relationships between U.S. non-profit arts, educational and cultural organizations and their counterparts overseas. The Ohio Arts Council is one of eight grant recipients and the only state arts agency in the nation to receive an award through the program. The grant is being carried out with the assistance and support of Ohio artists and arts professionals and matching funds from the Ohio Arts Foundation, Inc. and partners in Chile.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) manages a wide range of academic, professional and cultural exchanges that include approximately 30,000 participants annually with the goal of increasing mutual understanding and respect between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Guided by the four strategic pillars of U.S. public diplomacy: engagement, exchanges, education and empowerment, ECA cultural programs reach out to selected foreign audiences to highlight the creativity, diversity and dynamism of American society and its achievements, as well as to demonstrate the respect of the United States for the achievements of other cultures. For more information, visit www.exchanges.state.gov.
Established in 1988, the Ohio Arts Council’s International Program is designed to foster long-term involvement in international cultural exchange and encourage Ohio artists and arts organizations to form partnerships with arts professionals abroad. In addition to Germany, exchanges have occurred between Ohio artists, performers and administrators and their counterparts in Argentina, Chile, Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel and Japan.
The Ohio Arts Council is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically.
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